Women's soccer falls to Clemson, beats Seminoles

Playing two top-15 teams to a standstill in under two days, the Duke women's soccer team returned home late Sunday night with nothing but two losses to show for a weekend of great play. The two losses dropped Duke to 4-6 overall, but more importantly left the team with a winless 0-4 mark in the conference standings.

The Blue Devils dropped an extremely tight 1-0 game to No.11 Clemson Friday night before dropping another hard-fought battle against No.14 Florida State Sunday afternoon. Duke took both ACC foes to the limit with both games going into overtime, but Duke just could not manage to scrap a victory despite out-shooting both teams. Unlike last season when it seemed Duke was on the winning end of all the tight games, the Blue Devils have now lost three in a row by a combined four goals.

The match Friday night versus Clemson (7-1, 2-1) was definitely going to be a challenge, considering the Tigers came into the game with two straight shutouts and the never underestimated home-cooking.

But from the opening play, the pressure of a challenge was squarely placed on Clemson, who was forced to play without junior forwards Deliah Arrington and Heather Beem. With her teammates playing Clemson to a standstill for most of the game, goalkeeper Thora Helgadottir came up with eight important saves in the more than 91 minutes of play. It would take a questionable call in the box leading to a penalty kick past Helgadottir, that would bring the defensive struggle to a premature end for Duke.

In the overtime session, freshman Sarah Turner's shot from inside the box appeared to glance off the back of teammate Tricia Williams and sail over the goalpost. However, the referee ruled it was a hand-ball and awarded Clemson with a penalty kick,which would result in the game-winning goal by Lady Tiger Tatum Clowney less than two minutes into the extra session.

Less than 48 hours and almost 400 miles later, the Blue Devils took the field at the Seminole Soccer Complex in Tallahassee to take on Florida State. Duke jumped out early, as freshman sensation Casey McCluskey added to her team-leading goal total with a pair of strikes before halftime.

McCluskey has now scored eight goals on the season, all of them coming in the past seven games. But FSU (9-3, 3-0) answered back with two early goals within the first 15 minutes of the second half. The two teams would then play the length of almost another entire half before Seminole Cindy Schofield ended the marathon game in the 102nd minute with the game-ending goal in sudden death overtime.

Florida State freshman goalkeeper Ali Sims consistently made the spectacular play in denying Duke from putting the game away in the first half. Sims then carried the load in overtime, as she stopped a potential game-winning penalty shot by Duke senior Katie Heaps. The Seminoles would then put the game away on Schofield's goal, giving FSU its first ever victory over Duke.